We say, or sing this word in Church, during songs of praise and jubilation to our Lord,
but have any of us bothered to find out what the word really means?
Hallelujah is an Anglicization of the Hebrew word HalleluYah.
The first half of the word “hallelu” is the verb ” to praise”.
The second half “Yah” is the Name of the One being praised.
“Yhwh” is the personal Name of Our God, and out of respect for our Jewish Brethren, I omitted the vowels in the Name above all Names, as to utter or even spell the entire Holy Name of God is disrespectful.
So, where did we get the spelling, “Alleluia”?
Well, I found out it comes from the Greek translation “alle’louia”.
The Latin language interpreted as “Alleluia”, and the English picked it up from the Christian Missionaries from Rome. During some time in the 16th century, the English brought back the original “H” sound from the Hebrew.
Now from what I gathered the “j” spelling seems to date back to sometime around the pre-Norman Invasion English spelling conventions as the letter “j” seems to function as a “y” as in Modern German.
I find reverence fascinating and admire all who stand firm in respecting Our Heavenly Father is such a simple yet profoundly simple way.
From this day forward, I know I will never take this praiseworthy word for granted, and truly will think twice, before I dare to sing or even utter the word,
Hallelujah/ HalleluYa/ HalleluYah/ Alle’louia/ Alleluia
Written by Deanna G. DeBondt
April 8, 2021
4:05am
References:
Quora.com
Alle’luia – Wikipedia
Online Etymology Dictionary
Here is to you, until we can sing another
30 years of HalleluYah’s together again!
lead our parish family in song!
Healing thru Song+ 